Day: December 16, 2013

taped 2013-11-05 @ Arena MexicoBengala & Camaleón vs Cholo & Espanto Jr.: Formula opener match. Still waiting for Camaleón to get a real chance; he may not be flashy enough to make it, but his gear is worth a shot on it’s own and the finish was really great. Bengala was doing fine until that finish.

Camaleon frontcracker > every Inquisidor frontcracker ever

Oro Jr., Pegasso, Soberano Jr. vs Arkángel de la Muerte, Hooligan, Nitro: A pleasant surprise! A good combination – Tuareg are best with people who are going to go all for their shots, Soberano and Oro can turn into ragdolls as easily as they can fly – and motivated people. Hooligan’s more than willing to crush guys if they’ll be willing to be crushed, and the técnicos were very willing. They got in their offense too, and this was helped by being a new matchup for the Tuareg but I think it would’ve good even if it was the fifth time they’ve done it.

HOOLIGAN CRASH

Estrellita, Goya Kong, Marcela vs Amapola, La Comandante, Tiffany: Seemed like they were headed to the ultra-rare two fall match with no disqualification, until the very weak one to end it. Second fall was stretched out because there was only two of them, but didn’t feel as tedious as other times they’ve done this. Action was solid for this group.

Máscara Dorada, Mistico, Titán vs Mr. Águila, Mr. Niebla, Namajague: Fun to see Namajague work with this group of técnicos for the first time in a while. This was mostly a Niebla match, but the técnicos got in their parts too and Aguila was in good form. Camera work near the end wasn’t so great, but at least they picked it up on replay.

Like this:

IWRG (SUN) 12/15/2013Arena Naucalpan [Black Terry Jr. (flickr), The Gladiatores]
1) Fulgor I & Fulgor II b Alfa & Omega
2) Dragón Celestial, Hip Hop Man, Látigo b Araña de Plata, Kaling Black, Zurdog
3) Douki, Imposible, Oficial 911 b Diva Salvaje, Golden Magic, Miss Gaviota911 used a ref bump to sneak in a foul on Golden Magic.
4) Alan Extreme, Máscara Púrpura, Veneno b Fuerza Guerrera, Súper Nova, X-FlyEterno was in the crowd, on crutches. Super Nova borrowed one of the crutches to play around with before the match, then took Purpura out in the crowd during the match so Eterno could hit him with a crutch. Veneno pinned X-Fly.
5) Dr. Cerebro b Apolo Estrada [hair]Apolo won a quick first fall. Cerebro rallied back to win fall 2. 911 (Apolo’s second) stole Golden Magic (Cerebro’s second) mask, and Golden Magic went to the back to find a new one. It took him a great deal of time. 911 interfered a lot, Magic came back and moonsaulted 911, and Cerebro beat Apolo with a superbomb. Apolo got a chunk of hair taken off in the ring and more backstage. The Doc would like a title shot next.

Yesterday, I mentioned how Konnan said a planned tecnico turn for him in AAA Mexico was scuttled because the plans for him to be a heel in AAA US. there’s also been a general sense AAA has been holding back and waiting for the US launch to do certain things. I used to think that was a good idea, but I’ve done a 180 on the concept in the last few weeks and now believe it’s not a smart move.

We still don’t know very much about the AAA US promotion (which is kind of amazing given it’s supposed to be 3 months away from launching, but that’s another topic for another slow news day), but what we know about is the El Rey people in charge are approaching it like AAA has zero or nearly zero brand identity in the United States. Possible changes like a different name or making the characters more super-heroic could only be done if there wasn’t a concern about putting off people in the US who were already following the product. They’re starting from scratch decisions, which you can only make once you admit you’re at scratch. There are people in the US who do follow AAA – the kind of people who read this website or tried to purchase TripleMania – but that’s a small amount of people compared to the numbers it’s going to take AAA US to be viable.

If you’re starting AAA US as new for a new audience, then nothing that’s gone on in AAA Mexico matters to that audience. They don’t know it’s been 10 years since Konnan was a tecnico in Mexico, because AAA US just started to exist. They don’t know how big a deal it would be for [luchador X] to win a title or [luchador Y] to betray another and turn tecnico, because they’re unaware of the history or build up to that moment. AAA US could spend effort teaching them that history, but they’ve got get over who these people are first for it to matter. Telling the ending of stories or even the second act of stories will be lost on these new people – they just came in, they didn’t see the first act. AAA US has to be the start of new things.

It also doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to hold things back in the Mexico promotion, or even really treat them as related promotions early on. The number of people who will be following both the US and Mexico wing will be very small. Very few people in the US follow AAA in Mexico, and very few people in Mexico will be following the US promotion. The inconsistencies are only going to bother a minor group of people, not enough to revolve your booking around. There’s going to be a lot to get across for AAA US when they start up, don’t deal with the baggage of the last ten years of stories at the same time, and don’t handicap the promotion you’re counting on supporting you by waiting for the US audience to catch up. Tell the best stories you can right now, and make them all match up later on if it makes sense then. Give yourself the best chance to succeed and don’t worry about the crossover details.

Like this:

taped 2013-10-29 @ Arena Coliseo GuadalajaraGallo, Smaker, Tritón vs Felino, Puma, Tiger: Fun trios match, like most of the Felino/Puma/Tiger trios matches have been of late. Smaker and Gallo both fit in good here and this was a steady night for Triton. Even Gallito got more involved than usual. Nothing wrong with this at all.

Fiebre Amarilla

taped 2013-11-03 @ Arena ColiseoMephisto vs Titán for the Mexican National Light Heavyweight Championship: This was going along at a good pace, but the injury happened too soon in the third fall to know how it was going to turn out. (The Daga/Halloween vs Crazy/Marvin match is your better late injury match, to that extent.) It’s possible this was the finish planned for the end all along; Titan didn’t seem too surprised when Mephisto told him it. I think Mephisto might have gotten two different injuries in this match – Volador was working over the hip/back after the dive, but Mephisto was limping after the dragon screw – but I hope he gets healthy enough for them to try this all again.

Namajague face slam death

Namajague & Shigeo Okumura vs Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. for the Arena Coliseo (DF) Tag Team Championship: GREAT. Best match in 2013 where one of the participants randomly strikes a fan in the closing minutes? It’s got to be in the discussion! CMLL was surprisingly good at making sure we never saw what happened, but enough of the live crowd saw it to make it a distraction for the live crowd – but they were still into the match! Crowd was generally much more receptive to this than I would’ve guessed. Match seemed stronger to me on the rewatch; Delta and Maya have grown as a tag team and Namajague is just great at making everything look big. I wanted a bigger ending or at least something where the rudos get foiled trying to cheat their way to another win, but this still had a lot in it.